I can’t say enough great things about the latest episode of Rick and Morty. I mean, it was phenomenal! Season 3 Episode 7 may go down as one of the best episodes (or the best episode) of the series. But some fans are asking a question about the Citadel, and although it was explained (kind of) in the episode, it could use a fuller explanation. Didn’t Rick destroy the Citadel? So how did we get here?

This article has spoilers for Season 3 Episode 7.

OK, so many fans were pretty sure that Rick destroyed the Citadel at the end of Season 3 Episode 1. And it sure looked like it. I mean, he transported the entire Citadel into the Prison dimension and crashed it, sending everyone fleeing for their lives. So if you thought it was a goner and the Citadel was destroyed, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. A lot of people thought that!

Here’s the Citadel of Ricks and what it looked like when Rick was there in the Season 3 premiere:

Adult Swim

And here it is later, getting crashed into another dimension:

Adult Swim

But here it is now:

Adult Swim

So it’s understandable if you thought the Citadel was pretty much destroyed. In fact, you might have wondered if we were seeing some strange alternate reality Citadel of Ricks. But no, this is the one from the premiere of Season 3.

The truth was quickly explained in tonight’s episode. Rick destroyed The Council of Ricks within the Citadel of Ricks. But he did not destroy the entire Citadel. That’s why there’s a redevelopment fund. In the opening song, you can see that parts of the Citadel are still smashed up and they’re hard at work rebuilding it. The project’s not finished. But it’s also not uninhabitable either.

As Rick and Morty talk about in the beginning, there are still Ricks and Mortys living on the Citadel. And tonight we got to see what their lives are like. It looks like the system and government they had in place really wasn’t disrupted that much by the Council of Ricks being destroyed. Evil Morty was a greater disruptive force, it appears, than Rick.